: re: Hydrogen Cars, Coming Down the Pike

California's four great fortunes (Crocker,
Hopkins, Huntington, Stanford) were founded on the transcontinental
railroad. But it is too rarely remembered that none of the four ever
earned a dime providing rail service. Their fortunes were made in no
market, but in the lobby of Congress. Their agent Theodore Judah pushed
federal subsidies to build the rail line through Congress, where he
served simultaneously as secretary to the relevant committees in both
the House and the Senate. It was a boondoggle of historic proportion,
redeemed only partially by later entrepreneurs who put the rail to such
good use.

So now Honda, Hyundai and Toyota propose to claim
federal subsidies for hydrogen cars. Are they likewise unconvinced that
the Market wants these things?